Running around like a chook with its head cut off (and a beer up its arse)

28th April 2011 - Beer butt chicken by Ed

After the amazing long long weekend I decided to get back on track and invited Meg over for dinner. It was a kinda hectic day, my shoe fell off in the middle of the road while I was running to escape the rain, I tripped down the stairs on a packed train and everyone stared, and I sat next to a woman who made someone vacate their seat for her and her pram... that had a dog in it! Mad.

Anyway, as it’s getting winterish I decided a delicious roast would be the perfect thing for Meg to review... it was time for Beer Butt Chicken by Ed.

I made Sian be on standby to help me out, but secretly I think I nailed it while she cleaned out the pantry.

Everything seemed to go pretty much to plan. I'd never cooked a whole chicken before so it was kind of fun to be able to do that. Sian said it reminded her of a baby and she wanted to hug it which is slightly worrying, luckily she didn't hug it, and I did cook it.

I made double the seasoning so I could chuck the rest of it on the veggies which turned out really well. I didn't have regular chilli powder so I used a Mexican one I had which smelt really strong and was slightly overpowering. You actually put a beer inside the chicken which was fun and it just stands there magically balancing, weird.

I only cooked it for around 45 minutes, but when I checked it was all looking perfect! I asked Sian to help me get it out of the oven and stop it from tipping over and (not blaming anyone) it tipped over and beer and chicken juice spilt all over the veggies. I’m not sure what we could have done to stop this from happening really. I wanted to - slash did - throw a little tantrum and then made Sian stop everything she was doing and make the gravy.

Meg seemed pretty excited about the whole dealio and was mocking me relentlessly. Maybe because I was wearing glasses and they kept fogging up when I'd open the oven. It all turned out pretty well though. I wasn't sure if I liked it or not at first, but then I couldn't stop eating it...neither could Meg.

It was quite a success - until I ate so much I wanted to vomit and had to put my pjs on to make myself feel better.

Overall, I was very impressed. As Em would say... RE-SULT! This is the perfect meal for when you want it to look and taste like you’ve done something amazing, but don’t really have the skills and time to do something too fancy.

Tips: Try not to drop a sharp knife on your foot, it hurts, bleeds and doesn't look good in front of guests (unless you're wearing steal capped boots, if that’s the case I'd be throwing shit at my feet to see what happens).

Music: George, Polyserena and The Beatles, White Album